Megara Entertainment Brings The Keep Of The Lich-Lord To iOS

The Keep of the Lich-Lord ($3.99) by Megara Entertainment is a fantasy 2D role-playing gamebook where you choose the adventure that you will take. If you choose wisely, you will conquer your foes. If you choose poorly, it will mean your ultimate demise.

The gamebook genre is almost as old as role-playing games themselves. The Fighting Fantasy series of books has been around since the early ’80s. This story, The Keep of the Lich-Lord, originally came out in 1990 and has been revamped for the digital age.

Users choose the character they will play, either a rogue or a paladin. The character you chose will affect how your adventure unfolds. There are evil witches, werewolves, elves, and warriors. Fighting enemies may kill you, or reward you with treasures and potions.

The story is well written and fits perfectly within the gamebook genre. Much of the artwork is beautifully rendered. I downloaded the iPhone version onto my iPad and found that it still looked good, even with the Retina display screen. Some of the icons were fuzzy, but the paintings were fabulous.

Most of the time, this story only offers two choices for the adventure. Sometime, even if you choose one option, the book will force you into the other one anyway. There are only a handful of times when a player can choose whether to fight or flee. Although it is great to see the Fighting Fantasy series receive a 21st century update, this version needs a few more options to make it truly adventurous.

Even though the story doesn’t allow for a whole lot of plot straying, it is still a fun adventure gamebook. If you are familiar with the genre, you will enjoy this app. The $3.99 price tag is a bit steep, but it is reasonably priced considering it is a Fighting Fantasy gamebook. If you’ve never experienced the gamebook genre, you might want to skip this app.